Liberation > Year_2006 > November
COMMENTARY
Communal Frenzy in Coastal Karnataka
With the JDS-BJP coalition in power, Karnataka has been on tenterhooks, waiting for a communal conflagration to explode. And sure enough, the frenzy whipped up in Mangalore in the first week of October is a signal of another Gujarat in the making.
Actually, Karnataka has been developing as a Sangh laboratory for the past few years – with the erstwhile Congress Government turning a blind eye. Some newspapers, notably the Vijaya Karnataka owned by beer baron Vijay Mallya, had been developed as a machinery to systematically peddle rumours. Attempts have been on to recreate an Ayodhya-style conflict at the shrine of Baba Budangiri, which has been a symbol of Hindu-Muslim syncretic culture through centuries. With the BJP sharing power, all these efforts have got a boost, and the state machinery and police are also being successfully communalised.
Accordingly this year, a massive Datta Mala Abhiyan at Baba Budangiri was organized by the BJP - flouting the High Court ruling that all the rituals in practice before 1975 alone should be allowed. Recently, Shankaramurty, the Minister for Higher Education in Karnataka, made a statement that Tipu Sultan was anti-Kannada as he used Persian in his Court. Historically, it is known that during Tipu's administration, more than three languages were used. Not only that, Tipu was a heroic anti-colonialist fighter, who led three battles against the British, and whose sons inspired the Vellore Mutiny in the colonial army, which was in many ways a precursor of the 1857, more widely believed to be India's first War of Independence. No doubt, this anti-imperialist legacy accounts for the Sangh's animosity, as much as Tipu's Muslim identity!
All this led up to the assault on Muslims in Mangalore, in Buntwal and surrounding places, from October 3 onwards, at the beginning of the Ramzan month. Historically, coastal Canara has been the meeting ground of various religions, languages and socio-cultural interactions. Compared to the rest of Karnataka, Canara saw the successful implementation of land reforms by the Devraj Urs Government during Emergency. This empowered the middle caste groups like Poojarys and others who were tenants. Traditional conflicts between fishermen community (mostly M ogaveeras) and Muslim traders have since been exploited by the RSS. Of late, the common cultural practices of both the communities have been systematically decimated. The Urus of Muslim saints was discouraged by the Muslim fundamentalists. Hindus who used to attend these processions during jatras were restricted. Surveillance of Hindu women is a principal agenda of Sangh Parivar cadres. In one such instance, Hindu women who had gone to picnic with their Muslim colleagues were attacked at Mangalore.
Unlike the Muslims of other parts of Karnataka where the Muslim population is poor and landholding less, the Canara Muslims are engaged in business and skilled jobs and have challenged the traditional monopoly of the Hindu ( Konkani) traders. The mercantile competition amongst the traders is the source of communalism on either side. The significant weakness of the Muslim community, however, is the lack of effective political assertion. Here the Muslim League has been ineffectual, Congress inconsistent and the Left weak.
On October 3 at Bajpe, during the annual Sharada Utsava tableau procession, some Muslims objected to the depiction of a Muslim saluting a statute of Durga Parameshwari . Due to confusion, the procession was disbanded. However, on the same day, nearly seven thousand RSS lathi-wielding men organized the procession again, and while returning they aggressively attacked mosques and properties of the Muslims, who retaliated. Within twelve hours the riots enveloped the vast expanse of the coastal Canara. Mischievous media reports spread rumours about a cattle-carrying van having hit a lady causing grievous injuries, and the van was then chased by Gorakshak Sangh Parivaris who were challenged by the Muslims with stones at Kudroli abattoir. The media also published false news that Muslims killed a Hindu teacher.
On Thursday, October 5, Bajrang Dal called for a bandh during which rioting continued. One moulvi was murdered near a mosque. Houses and mosques were invaded and innocents were ruthlessly attacked. In one such incident, after a peace committee meeting, a Muslim house was attacked. During most of the attacks, motorcycle-borne Bajrang Dal activists wearing saffron scarves were enforcing the bandh and were engaged in loot and arson. Common people testified to the communal role of the police, which looted and destroyed Muslim homes, indulged in wholesale arrests of Muslim youth from their homes, and helped to organise the communal violence. Of the five hundred arrests have been made of which 90% are Muslims. The weapons were supplied to the Bajrang Dal in a van belonging to the education institution run by Nagaraj Shetty, the district-incharge and Minister of the BJP. On October 6, the Sri Rama Sena called for a bandh to protest against the arrest of Pramod Mutalik, the hard-core fundamentalist, at Baba Budangiri.
The CM visited the disturbed areas on October 11, with Deputy CM Yediyurappa. They announced that there would be no judicial enquiry and gave a clean chit to the Bajrang Dal. M.P. Prakash, the Home Minister, announced that SIMI, Bajrang Dal and Sri Rama Sena were responsible for the disturbances, while the Dakshina Kannada district JD(S) president Vasanth Bangere directly alleged the involvement of DK district incharge minister B. Nagaraj Shetty in the entire violence. The Government is thus speaking in many tongues. We can indeed hear the footsteps of fascism in Karnataka.
– Dr V.Lakshminarayana
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